Watching With Results
by Purple01Writing
Summary: [Thrill Pair] The time has come to stop watching and act. [Fujicentric]


_"Those who say happiness comes with sunshine have never danced in the rain."_

* * *

Life was strange.

That was the sentiment of Fuji Syuusuke these days.

Seigaku's beloved buchou-no matter how stern he may have been, he was still their _buchou-_was in Germany, recuperating from that injury dealt to him by the christened Monkey King.

In a week, they would be facing Rikkai Dai, a school famous for it's tennis team. Fuji wasn't backing down from the challenge, far from it. But this would be the first time they faced Rikkai Dai without Tezuka.

In their training camp, he began to notice Echizen trying to avoid his other senpais much more than before, seeking out the quieter ones.

Namely, him.

It didn't particularly surprise him-then again, it was extremely hard to shock Seigaku's tensai-but he did wonder about the cause.

After Echizen's match with Tezuka, he began to watch their buchou every game he played, calculating.

Fuji wasn't sure if Inui had noticed this, but once again, Inui was one of the senpais that Echizen was precisely trying to avoid. "They're too loud," was Echizen's excuse.

No matter how hard Seigaku's baby boy tried, though, he could never find a way to avoid Eiji and Momoshirou for long. One on their own, perhaps, but when they teamed up, he could never find a hide away that was safe from them.

Fuji just watched with amusement, inwardly wondering what would happen if he joined in the fun. Out of the team, himself, Tezuka, and Inui were the only ones that Echizen didn't tease or disrespect. It would be interesting to see Ochibi's reaction.

For now, though, he only watched.

Tonight was thier first night, and Echizen had already approached him in the _onsen, _trying to avoid the bickering Momoshirou, Kaidoh, and for added measure, Eiji. He had readily accepted the quiet boy's presence as they just sat there. Echizen was as clearly anti-social as gossip went, but Fuji was just quiet.

It was strange, though, how Echizen ended up moving his sleeping bag over to him. Again, with the sound excuse.

Fuji was beginning to suspect Echizen just wanted him as protection from the loud people, for no one dared to cross the sadistic boy.

He hid a satisfied smile from the little boy. His more sadistic-minded part of himself was beginning to spark with ideas.

Perhaps he could finally do something about his preoccupation with the boy, started those months ago in the rain.

Whatever Fuji expected to be a wake-up call, this wasn't it.

Echizen was currently snuggled up against his chest, purring. Judging from how his arms were entwined around him, they had been in this position for a bit.

He carefully extracted his left arm, and glanced at his wrist watch. 5:45 am, his time for getting up every morning. So it was his internal clock that had gotten him up.

"Echizen-kun," he murmured. "Echizen-kun."

Echizen continued to sleep deeply. Fuji attempted to shake him a bit, but the boy slumbered on.

He forced down a laugh as he thought that whoever woke him in the morning had to have the patience of a stone.

"Echizen-kun," he stated a bit louder.

Echizen buried his face in Fuji's shirt. "Karu...pin."

Fuji had the sudden urge to giggle out loud. Pressing his lips together, he decided to pick up the boy, who purred louder.

While they padded through the hallways, Fuji was grateful that the bathing area was on the other side of the house. He had a feeling that the rest of the Regulars wouldn't appreciate being woken so early.

He quickly deprived Echizen of his shirt, preferring to leave his shorts on. He carefully laid the still-slumbering boy under the shower faucet and ran it cold.

He left quickly to reside in the warm _onsen _once again, waiting for the reaction. This had always worked with Yuuta when he was younger.

"ARGH!"

Fuji laughed, before choking the rest of the giggles down so that the enraged boy would not overhear him.

After the water had been turned off, Echizen stalked out of the shower room dripping wet, looking for all the world like an enraged cat.

"Fuji-senpai," he began heatedly.

"Shh," he ordered. "You'll wake the entire house."

Echizen opened his mouth to protest, but sighed and closed it again.

"Now, can you speak Japanese like a civilized person?" Fuji said calmly.

"Fuji-senpai," Echizen said, rolling his eyes in clear exasperation. "Why did I have to wake up under cold water?"

"Do you often wind yourself around someone sleeping next to you?" He answered.

Echizen looked horrified. "No, senpai."

"You did last night, and I couldn't get you to wake up," Fuji informed him, watching amusedly as Echizen shivered from the cold.

Echizen didn't reply, instead after de-clothing the rest of his surviving garments—Fuji politely looked away—and slipped into the warm water, sighing in renewed contentment.

"Feel better?" Fuji inquired gently after some time had passed.

Echizen merely nodded. He bowed his head, staring at the slightly steaming water. "I'm sorry, senpai," it was so quiet, that Fuji would have missed it if he hadn't been listening for it.

As he thought about it, he hadn't really minded it all that much. It reminded of him when Yuuta was little, and frightened of thunder storms. Both he and Yuuta would go to Yumiko's room, where she was working on something for school, and Yuuta would quickly admit to being afraid. Yumiko would laugh, but she would put down her pen, and they would all sit on the bed. Yumiko would tell them stories, and Yuuta would bury his face in his back as Yumiko recounted about the ghost that haunted the third tower or something like that.

"It's fine," he found himself saying to the astonished Echizen. "Just-be easier to wake up, okay? Otherwise we're going to be doing this _every _morning."

Echizen shuddered.

* * *

The next day, when Echizen and Yamato-senpai had mysteriously gone off to wherever they had gone, Oishi paused in his picking of the bamboo shoots. "Fuji…" he said softly, trying to not earn the attention of the rest of the group.

Fuji turned his head slightly to look sharply at the worried-looking motherhen. "Yes, Oishi?"

Oishi shifted slightly. "Fuji…does Echizen seem _different_ to you?"

_You have no idea_ was Fuji's private thought, but that was one he was particularly eager to share that with Oishi. "A bit, yes. Why do you ask?"

Oishi shifted again, looking even more uncomfortable. "He seems to be latching onto you in particular," Oishi said finally.

_Latching? That's an interesting term for it. Should I tell you, Oishi, about how I have woken up the past two mornings?_

"Saa…I have noticed it as well," Fuji said evasively. "Whatever do you think the cause can be?"

Oishi looked even more discomfited at how the conversation had turned. "I…don't know," he admitted. "Fuji, we do need him. Can you try to find out so we can help?"

Fuji felt his hackles rise a bit. From Oishi's tone, it sounded like he worried that Fuji would break their freshman. "Hai," was his compliant answer, though his mind was whirling with musings about the enigmatic freshman.

"Nyyaaa, Oishi," Eiji whined, glomping Oishi from behind. "Where's Ochibi and Yamato-senpai?"

"They're still missing?" Oishi asked frantically, his head snapping up.

Eiji nodded, and pouted. "I was hoping to ask Yamato-senpai about high school," he continued to whine. "He's disappeared."

Fuji smiled again, closing his eyes once again. "Isn't that smoke?" he asked to air around him, pointing to a thin column rising towards the turquoise sky, a slight ladder to the clouds.

Oishi heaved a sigh of relief. "C'mon, everyone, let's go find them!" he took off jogging towards that beacon, with everyone following close behind.

Fuji waited for a moment to fully catch his breath-and his thoughts-before taking off to join the others.

……………

That night, Echizen was quietly examining his hands when Fuji sat next to him. He nodded slightly, not stopping in his perusal of his digits.

"Feeling all right, Echizen-kun?" Fuji inquired.

Echizen snorted. "Che. Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm fine."

"My apologies for falling into the common error, then," Fuji said quietly, taking one of Echizen's hands in his own, searching for whatever Echizen was searching for.

Echizen shrugged, not retaking his hand. "It's okay, Fuji-senpai. I just get tired of it."

Fuji chuckled lightly, running a light finger over his palm, and was delighted to see gooseflesh ripple across Echizen's hand. "I can understand that. Is that why you all but ran from the others tonight?"

Echizen's mouth quirked upwards in a semblance of a smirk. "I just don't like crowds, Fuji-senpai."

"Why?" Fuji asked, honestly interested.

"Crowds are too noisy and pushy," Echizen said firmly, eyes flashing in annoyance. "They always want things from you or you from them and they punish you or beat you."

Fuji's eyebrows quirked upwards. "Are you talking about a person in general or crowds? It was my belief that was what we were discussing."

Echizen laughed quickly, before it dying quickly. "Depends on what angle you were going for, Fuji-senpai."

Fuji patted the boy on the head, who didn't protest. "So, did someone beat you? In what, tennis?"

Echizen's slight smile died, and he looked at the ground.

"Who was it?" Fuji's voice was very soft and slight lilting.

"Sanada from Rikkai Dai," came Echizen's whisper.

Fuji hid a surprised gasp. Perhaps it shouldn't have surprised him as much, given Echizen's penchant for challenging powerful opponents.

Echizen concealed his face in his knees in an uncustomary show of despair.

Fuji barely hesitated before pulling the unresisting boy onto his lap, who buried his face into Fuji's t-shirt, trembling slightly. Somehow, even though he himself had never been truly in the situation where he had lost a match and was touched enough to dwell on it, he could identify with that similar feeling of hopelessness.

Fuji didn't know how long they had sat there before he realized that Echizen had fallen asleep, and he-against his better judgment-carefully put him in his sleeping bag, and watched him, arms loosely clasped around his bent knees.

"Fuji."

Fuji roused enough out of his meditation to smile at Oishi, who sat between him and Echizen, perhaps unconsciously. He glanced around the room, a bit shocked to see everyone tucked into bed and asleep.

Echizen sat up too, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Yamato-senpai is really great, isn't he," Oishi sighed.

Fuji smiled, and murmured, "Hai."

"You were with him for a long time, Echizen," Oishi continued. "What'd he talk about?"

"Lots of stuff," Echizen shrugged, an amused gleam in his hazel eyes.

"Share," Oishi demanded. "What stuff?"

"I don't remember," Echizen lied.

Fuji gazed at the boy, an amused half-smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

The boy lay down away facing away from them. Fuji chuckled softly-Oishi didn't hear it as he reluctantly agreed that they should probably "hit the hay" as well.

Once he was relatively certain that Oishi was asleep, he crawled to Echizen's side, who turned to face him.

"Yamato-senpai is strange," Echizen commented. He sat up, leaning against Fuji.

"How so?" Fuji inquired.

"Well, he's always quoting those completely random facts." Echizen's face was open enough to see that he was thrown off by this behavior.

Saa…so it appeared that Echizen didn't take well to spontaneous situations.

He would have to remedy that.

"So that's strange, is it?" Fuji queried. His hand, previously on Echizen's shoulder, wandered down little by little.

Echizen looked down. "Yeah."

"Echizen, what are you afraid of?" Fuji spoke suddenly.

Echizen glared at him. "Nothing."

Fuji chortled dryly. "I'm sure."

"Fuji-senpai," Echizen began.

Fuji laid a long finger against the boy's mouth. "Echizen-kun, everyone is afraid of something. It isn't weak to admit it. Fear is something that makes us human."

Echizen rolled his eyes. "Fuji-senpai, what are you afraid of? I hear how people talk about you-_tenshi_, they call you. An angel. Do angels feel fear?"

Fuji smiled, but there was no mirth. "Of course. If I am truly a _tenshi _as some would put it, angels feel fear like any other beings."

"Like what?" Echizen asked insolently.

Fuji considered the boy in front of him. "Love."

Echizen looked thrown. "Nani?"

"Love," Fuji repeated. "I fear love."

Echizen blinked. "Why, Fuji-senpai?"

Fuji smoothed away his bangs with hands that shook. He hadn't been this open to anyone since Yuuta departed to live in the St. Rudolph dorms. "I fear love because I fear it will never be returned. I fear pining for someone. I fear its influence."

"Fuji-senpai, it sounds more like you fear rejection than love itself." That sentence left him short of breath, and he stared at the boy, who had bowed so his bangs covered his eyes.

"Perhaps."

"Fuji-senpai, who are you pining for?"

His eyes snapped open. "No one. Why do you ask?"

Echizen was looking very fixedly at the ground now. "Gossip says you're waiting for buchou."

Fuji began to laugh hard. "Really?" In the next instant, his features had cleared. "Tezuka belongs, heart and soul, to Atobe."

"Then why…?" Echizen asked confusedly.

"They just haven't realized it yet," Fuji finished, wrapping his arm around the younger boy's waist, drawing him close.

Echizen tensed for a moment, but soon relaxed into the hold. "You're warm," he commented. Releasing Echizen for a moment, he drew a blanket around them, putting his arm around him for a moment.

"Why are you letting me hold you, Echizen?" he asked.

There was no answer.

Fuji glanced downwards-Echizen had fallen asleep, his head falling into the crook between Fuji's neck and shoulder.

Carefully lying down, he soon fell asleep as well.

* * *

Backhand. Forehand. Lob. Higuma Otoshi. Repeat.

Practice had finally gone to tennis. Fuji was working with Echizen, and while both had maintained normal facades, inwardly both were tickled pink at being able to work together again.

There was a certain rhythm to working with someone you were interested in, Fuji decided. It was as if his body knew where Echizen would hit it to, and in turn, Echizen knew where the ball would go.

So they were stuck into a never-ending rally.

Not that they minded.

It didn't take too long for the rest of the Regulars to pause with what they were doing and watch. However, the two players were too caught up in what they were doing to notice. Finally, Oishi had to intervene, as it was time to eat lunch.

As they headed back to the house, Echizen asked if they wanted to continue it later.

For answer, Fuji stole his hat, mussed up his hair, and stuck it back on before the startled freshman could protest, and hurried to catch up with Eiji.

Echizen numbly resettled his hat properly, and suddenly his legs were carrying him faster to catch up with the main group, an almost discernible smile on his face.

………………

"That was some adventure today," Fuji remarked as they played again that evening.

"Che. He was pathetic," Echizen snorted. "What kind of person dresses up as a bear to rob houses?"

Fuji laughed-Echizen joined in, a rich laugh for such a small boy.

Echizen hit a drop shot, and Fuji rushed to get it. It was hit right past him, to his shock.

Fuji paused Echizen in his tracks by gently grasping his shoulder. "Echizen-kun," he began.

Echizen interrupted. "Fuji-senpai, I think we've talked enough to call each other by our first names," he muttered.

Fuji blinked.

Echizen grinned at him. "Fuji-senpai, if the wind blows wrong, you'll be stuck looking perpetually shocked the rest of your life.

The comment was lost on Fuji, who was examining him carefully. "Are you sure, Echi-I mean, Ryoma-kun?"

Echizen-no, Ryoma, he reminded himself-rolled his eyes. "Of course, senpai."

"Call me Syuusuke instead of 'senpai' if you please," Fuji ordered softly.

Echi-Ryoma snorted. "Fine, Syuu-senpai."

Fuji tapped the nose of the smirking boy. "Are you usually so difficult?"

"Yes."

Fuji cocked his head. _Honest._

"Ryoma-kun, why are you not shying away from my attention like the others?" the question is almost completely random if it hadn't been haunting his mind for the last few days.

"You aren't being completely obvious or over-the-top with it," Ryoma said quietly. "Besides, I," he looked away from Fuji's searching open-eyed gaze. "I guess I kind of like it."

Fuji stopped. _Did he just…? He did. Oh great Kami-sama, I suppose I should be thanking you. _

Fuji's hand found Ryoma's chin and pulled it upwards so Fuji could look at him fully. "Are you quite sure?"

"Hai," Ryoma muttered, keeping his eyes away from Fuji, trying not to admit he was blushing.

Fuji reacted purely on instinct. He leaned in, and kissed the boy.

At first, Ryoma tensed, but soon gave up resistance. His mouth was soft and warm, a comfort to the cold that Fuji had been feeling for so long, yet refusing to admit it.

This had settled his feet back on the ground again. He felt human again, not so breakable or inhumanly cold. The kiss grew more passionate as both wrapped their arms around each other.

As if to give them privacy, the lights were suddenly turned off, plunging them into darkness.

* * *

The rest of the week made them spend their time in secret, not wishing Eiji or Momo to know about their still-budding relationship.

Any free time they had, they spent it talking, not kissing.

That came after the conversations.

Oishi had been curious about their sudden closeness, but after a particularly quick conversation with Fuji left him quiet and accepting. Oishi had been the one to tell all of the other regulars, to spare the quiet duo the questions and demands that they would have faced if they had been the ones to tell.

However, Fuji had called Tezuka to inform him.

Tezuka's only reaction was, "Don't break him until after nationals."

That left both laughing until sunset.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, since I've been working on this since Monday.

-LilacMoonlight


End file.
